Creating Accessible Presentations: Before, During, and After
Before
If you are the organizer, arrange for live captions.
- Provide ASL interpreters on request.
- Use good color contrast and large fonts in designing your slides.
- Don’t cram too much text on a slide.
- If your presentation includes video or audio clips, ensure they are accessible.
- Provide captions (or a transcript for audio-only clips).
- Provide audio description or summarize the video so blind attendees understand the content.
During
- Speak descriptively.
- Imagine you are speaking to someone who can't see your screen. What is important about your graphics?
- No need to call out each image individually but be sure that the information they convey is included in your script.
- Pace yourself
- Interpreters need more time for translation, and other attendees appreciate it too.
- Leave time for questions, if that fits the format.
- Practice your presentation so you know how long it takes at a reasonable speaking speed.
- Explain acronyms if the audience is general.
- Keep jargon to a minimum, unless the event is for specialists.
After
- If you are sharing the presentation video, make sure the captions are included.
- If you are sharing the slides, consult accessibility tips for documents.
- PowerPoint and PDF can be made accessible; see resources below.
- Consider using HTML which can be made highly accessible; see resources below.
Resources
Accessible Documents
Color Contrast Tools
- Tanaguru Contrast Finder
- WCAG Contrast Checker (Firefox add-on)
- Color Contrast Analyzer, which is particularly useful for checking the contrast levels of text over image backgrounds.
- Accessible Brand Colors, which can show you how your colors work together in different combinations.
Image Description Resources
Printable (PDF) Version of Tip Sheet
Developed in conjunction with the National Center for Accessible Media, based at Boston public broadcaster WGBH. 